Building on this success, nationalist politicians introduced a referendum designed to gauge support for a local Scottish Assembly. Though pro-devolution voters just edged out the competition, only A devolution referendum proved more successful, with Scotland overwhelmingly voting in favor of a decentralized legislature; the new governing body met in Edinburgh for the first time on May 12, Ultimately, 45 percent of Scots voted in favor of leaving the U.
Though many of the issues debated around the time of the Acts of Union are no longer relevant, Bowie says the events of the 18th century hold valuable insights for the current independence movement. And for it to last, it has to work.
Meilan Solly is Smithsonian magazine's associate digital editor, history. Website: meilansolly. Post a Comment. Films like Braveheart and Trainspotting helped to establish Scotland as a cultural powerhouse; authors, artists and musicians from Scotland were enjoying renewed success.
Rowling wrote the global phenomenon Harry Potter in Edinburgh, and in scientists from the Roslin Institute successfully cloned the first mammal from an adult cell, Dolly the Sheep. The calls for more devolved powers had been growing for decades and resulted in a referendum in A second referendum was held in September , with the vote delivering greater powers.
In the Scottish Parliament reconvened for the first time in nearly years, ushering in a new era for the Scottish people. On the 18 September , the people of Scotland voted.
Learn more. Home About Scotland History. The Union of the Crowns Renaissance in Scotland The cultural, intellectual and artistic movement that took hold around Europe brought significant changes to Scotland; education, intellectual life, literature, art, architecture, music and politics all advanced in the late 15th century.
Related content. Mandela Day Learn more. They also started to carve strange cup and ring symbols on rocks which we can still see today. We don't understand the meaning of these symbols, though the sites chosen appear to be sacred and may well have strong links with some form of pre-Christian religion. Scotland's stone circles in particular are some of Britain's most impressive ancient structures, with Callanish on Lewis in particular rivalling Stonehenge in terms of size and impact.
As circles such as Callanish are precisely aligned to the sun, moon and stars, we can speculate that they were used for some form of exact astronomical calculation - though what, of course, remains a baffling mystery. However, these early Scots didn't just make their mark on land - they did so on the water, too, building lake dwelling settlements known as crannogs on lochs in places such as Perthshire, the Highlands and the Western Isles.
Why should they go to the trouble of doing this? Probably because they felt under threat - perhaps from other tribal groups - and living on water gave them a feeling of defence and security. Certainly these complex wooden structures, which date from around BC, were formidable and would have been difficult to attack. A rebuilt example of a crannog is now in existence at Kenmore in Perthshire, where it can be visited during summer months.
Another type of building dating from this period was the broch - large round wood or stone Iron Age towers apparently used as farmhouses. During this period, no-one thought of Scotland as a separate country. It was principally a peaceful, highly evolved farming nation where people's main concern was looking after their families and surviving as best they could.
Q1: Is the any evidence of Scotland's early geological formation left? Answer: Plenty - it's all around you. Look at the buildings, for instance. The granite structures of Aberdeen , warm red tenements of Glasgow and blonde sandstone of Edinburgh's New Town all contain stone from various periods in Scotland's ancient past. Q2: How have we managed to find so much evidence of our history? Answer: Often, by nothing more than pure chance and accident. Over the course of history, explorers and scientists have stumbled on some remarkable treasures.
Many fossils have been found in this way, as have precious artefacts from periods such as the bronze and iron ages. The sudden dominance of mining, shipbuilding and textiles, along with rising rents and poor harvests, meant that many people from rural communities were forced to move to towns and cities, or sometimes even emigrate. The written evidence for this is often recorded in the papers of the large landed estates.
Rich landowners also cleared their land of towns and villages to make way for profitable sheep farming. Some places, such as Mingulay and St Kilda , were abandoned altogether by the early 20th century. In , Glasgow was made European City of Culture, and the next decade saw Scottish culture make its mark on the world, with films like Trainspotting and the books of J K Rowling finding huge success.
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